MANILA, Philippines – Want to invest your money somewhere, but don’t know what will give you a good return? Here’s a list of the best managed funds in the Philippines to get you started.

In general, a fund is a type of financial instrument managed by an investment house, trust institution, or bank. These work by pooling together money from many different investors and then having expert fund managers try to grow that money – by putting the money in bonds, stocks, foreign currency, or a mix of them all.

As an individual, you can invest in these funds by simply opening an account with your bank or with an investment house. To decide which fund to put your money in, you may want to look at which funds performed best in 2023, but always bear in mind that past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

Here are the 13 best managed funds identified by the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society Philippines for 2024.

Intermediate-term bond funds. These are bond funds, which means they primarily invest in bonds and other fixed-income securities. Investors are recommended to keep their investments in the fund between 1 to 3 years.

• Peso Intermediate-Term Bond – Metro Max-3 Bond Fund
• Dollar Intermediate-Term Bond – Metro$ Max-3 Bond Fund

Medium-term bond funds. These are bond funds that have an investment horizon of 3 to 5 years.

• Peso Medium-Term Bond – Landbank Medium-Term Bond Fund
• Dollar Medium-Term Bond – AUB Gold Dollar Fund

Long-term bond funds. These are bond funds that have an investment horizon of greater than five years.

• Peso Long-Term Bond – SB Peso Bond Fund
• Dollar Long-Term Bond – China Bank Dollar Fund

Balanced funds. These are funds that have a diversified portfolio made up of both bonds and stocks, with stocks making up between 40% to 60% of the fund.

• Peso Balanced Fund – AB Capital Balanced Fund
• Dollar Balanced Fund – Sun Life Prosperity Dollar Advantage Fund

Equity funds. These are funds that primarily invest in equities, like stocks. They may also include some cash for liquidity an portfolio-rebalancing.

• Peso Equity Fund – BPI Philippine Infrastructure Equity Index Fund
• Dollar Equity Fund – BPI Invest Global Equity Fund-of-Funds

Equity index funds. These are funds that track or attempt to replicate the performance of the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi).

• Peso Equity Index Category – SB Philippine Equity Index Fund

Global equity feeder funds. These are funds that pool capital and invest it in another larger target global equity fund. This provides investors access to offshore funds or funds that have high minimum requirements.

• Peso Global Equity Feeder Fund – ATRAM Global Technology Feeder Fund
• Dollar Global Equity Feeder Fund – BPI US Equity Index Feeder Fund

Note that all bond and balanced funds use fair value profit and loss valuation or FVPL.

What makes a fund well-managed?

CFA Society Philippines picked through 136 funds from 17 investment houses, trust institutions, and banks to find out which ones excelled in terms of key performance metrics.

When it comes to judging which funds were the best managed, CFA Society Philippines used the 3-year and 5-year Sortino ratio for actively-managed funds, like bond funds, balanced funds, and equity funds.

The Sortino ratio is a measure of risk-adjusted return that balances the return of a fund against its downside volatility – or the kind of price volatility that makes you lose money. An investment with a higher Sortino ratio means the investor gets a higher return for the amount of risk that you take.

Meanwhile, the CFA Society Philippines used the 3-year and 5-year tracking error relative to the PSEi to find out which passively-managed equity index fund was best. The tracking error is a measure of how closely the index fund’s performance matches the PSEi.

In 2024, banking giant Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) got the most awards, with three of its equity funds being recognized. In last year’s ranking, BPI’s Odyssey Diversified Balanced Fund was also recognized as one of the best managed funds in 2023.

Metrobank and Security Bank also had two of their funds included in the CFA Society Philippines’ list. None of the funds managed by BDO Unibank, the country’s largest bank by asset size, made it to the list.

“The goal of the CFA Society of the Philippines in giving the fund of the year awards is to raise awareness among retail investors by recognizing professionally-managed funds that have delivered the highest risk-adjusted returns (for actively-managed funds) or lowest tracking error (for index funds) compared to their peers. This performance and consistency is important for investors who put their hard earned money in the hands of their fund managers for their future,” Robert Ramos, president and chairman of CFA Society Philippines, said in a statement sent on Tuesday, May 14. – Rappler.com